2nd Lt. Lloyd H. Hughes
(Lloyd "Pete" Herbert Hughes, Jr. - 12 Jul 1921 - 1 Aug 1943)

I thought that Pete's Medal of Honor was lost. I wondered if Hazel or her family had it (which made the most sense since it was presented to her), or if one of my uncles (Pete's three surviving younger half brothers) had it, or what. All I knew was that I had never seen it.

In late 2006, I found out that my uncles had recently donated it to the Refugio County Museum in Refugio, Refugio County, Texas, USA. Their reasoning was that Pete had thought of Refugio as home because he grew up there and graduated from Refugio High School.

On 28 Dec 2006, I dropped in on the Refugio County Museum and explained to the lady working there who I was and why I was interested in Pete's Medal of Honor. It was in a separate room where you could see it through a glass window. The lady very kindly brought it out and let me handle and photograph it. (Photograph at left.)

Meanwhile, I started reading various Internet forums and asking questions. When I explained about there being two medals, the first question that was fired back at me was "What was engraved on the back, if anything?" I had to answer that I didn't know and hadn't even thought to turn it over to look at the back when I had it in my hands in Refugio. I vowed to go back again.

On 28 May 2007, I photographed the Pete's display at the Memorial Student Center. There was an image of Pete (not a photograph) and certainly what looked like a Medal of Honor. (Photographs at left.) In fact, there were seven display cases with seven images and seven Medals of Honor. It is an awesome sight.

On 9 Dec 2007, out of the blue, I got an email from James R. Woodall, Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) who was the Professor of Military Science and Commandant of Cadets at Texas A&M University before he retired. He was also looking for Pete's Medal of Honor and wanted to connect with a relative of Pete's. We began our correspondence. One of my first questions for Jim, seeing him as an inside source, was to ask him about Pete's display and the provenance of the medal.

On 11 Dec 2007, Woodall answered my question. "The seven Medals of Honor on display in the Memorial Student Center are locally produced replicas," he wrote. I asked him why the university's Web site said they were "the" Medals of Honor and he started his campaign to get the web pages changed. It took a while.

On 27 Dec 2007, I again dropped in on the Refugio County Museum and this time took photographs of both the front and the back of Pete's Medal of Honor. (Photographs at left.) The reverse is indeed engraved:

The Congress To

2nd Lt.
Lloyd H. Hughes
Air Corps US Army
Ploesti Romania
1 August 1943

Here was, at last, tangible proof that this was indeed, Pete's Medal of Honor.

By 19 Feb 2008, the pages in question at Texas A&M's Web site had been changed. The wording had been changed to their "specimen medals are displayed." Thank you, Jim!

On 11 Apr 2008, Pete's Medal of Honor was informally handed over from my family to Jim for display in the Sam Houston Sanders Corps of Cadets Center.

On 24 May 2008, I visited with Jim and received an escort into the Corps Center to see Pete's display. Excellent!

Note: All photographs are © Rajordan.